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The Bulwark Daily
The Bulwark
Tim Miller and guests discuss the latest political news for the flagship podcast of the Never Trump movement and the reality-based community. Every weekday we provide insightful analysis, political hot-takes, an unabashed defense of liberal democracy and long-form interviews that cut through the "both-sides" BS. Plus a few laughs to help you wash down the crazy. Bulwark+ members can get a totally ad-free version of the show delivered right to their favorite podcast player.
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False80% confidence7 sourcesSep 29, 2026The 1996 Russian presidential election was rigged.Said by 3COfficial and authoritative assessments do not support the claim: OSCE monitors found the fraud charges unsubstantiated, and the Central Election Commission and observers reported no significant fraud. Some real irregularities (Tatarstan ballot stuffing, anomalous between-round shifts, Chechnya counting problems) are documented, but they fall far short of the broad allegation that the election was rigged.Mixed60% confidence7 sourcesSep 29, 2026Donald Trump is using money from the Secret Service and National Parks to fund the construction of a ballroom.Said by BSources support that the Secret Service's taxpayer appropriations (about $350M to $1.17B, reported as redirected in June 2026) were directed toward the ballroom project, though the administration says donors fund the ballroom and Democrats' diversion claims are their own characterization. No source shows money actually taken from National Parks accounts; the National Parks element appears only in a GOP senators' funding proposal that was abandoned, so that part of the claim is not supported.Mixed50% confidence6 sourcesSep 29, 2026The architect for the ballroom project quit due to health and safety standards regarding fire hazards.Said by BThe Washington Post reporting, relayed by many outlets, says architect James McCrery II resigned after repeatedly warning that the ballroom design violated fire and safety codes, so the safety-and-fire-hazard motive is reported. However, the White House calls the code-related departure story 'factually false and totally inaccurate,' and McCrery himself gave the Post no specific reason, so the causal claim that he quit because of fire-safety standards is contested.Mixed55% confidence6 sourcesSep 29, 2026The last time a foreign correspondent was taken on fabricated espionage charges in Russia was in the late 1980s.Said by 3CThe sources agree the last foreign correspondent espionage case in Russia was in the Soviet era, the Daniloff arrest, but they date it to 1986 (mid-1980s), not the late 1980s the claim states. The post's own "late '80s" wording is the claimant's, so the claim matches the passage, and the gap is one of dating rather than the core assertion.Minor detail. The sources confirm the claim; only a minor detail differs, such as a name's spelling, a title's wording or a rounding.Mixed55% confidence5 sourcesSep 29, 2026Valerie Hopkins of The New York Times reported that she had to track receipts to monitor supermarket price changes in Russia because people were afraid to speak to her.Said by 3CThe NYT article by Valerie Hopkins (Sept. 23, 2026) confirms she has been tracking grocery receipts in Russia to document price changes. However, the excerpt does not say people were afraid to speak to her; it describes shoppers giving scripted 'everything is fine' answers to her questions, which is a different account from the claimed reason.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed60% confidence5 sourcesSep 29, 2026Donald Trump Jr.'s wedding was paid for by the head of the boxing association.Said by 5BThe record strongly supports that IBA president Umar Kremlev paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars of Trump Jr.'s wedding celebrations, but Bettina Trump's account (Reuters) says he paid for two after-parties rather than the wedding itself, so the literal reading ('the wedding') and the intended reading ('the wedding festivities') get different grades. The later AP report that Trump Jr. repaid Kremlev (Oct 6) postdates the Sept 29 claim and does not make it false as of that date.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed50% confidence8 sourcesSep 29, 2026Donald Trump planned to blame China for hacking voting machines.Sources confirm Trump blamed China for election interference and voter-data theft in his July 16, 2026 address, and called US voting machines vulnerable. However, the sources say he did not allege China hacked voting machines or altered votes (The Nightly: he never claimed evidence of compromised machines), and none address a plan to blame China for machine hacking. The claim also departs from the passage's framing of a self-sabotaged plan, which no source addresses.Mixed60% confidence9 sourcesSep 29, 2026Trump is stealing taxpayer money by raiding Secret Service and National Parks funds to build the ballroom.Said by BSources document roughly $300-400 million in Secret Service funds redirected by OMB toward White House security work that Democrats and reporters say helps fund the ballroom, so the Secret Service element is largely supported. The National Parks diversion rests mainly on Heinrich's partisan reporting, the White House says the funds are for security rather than the ballroom itself, and no authority has ruled the spending illegal or theft, so the 'stealing' and 'illegal' framing is contested.True80% confidence8 sourcesSep 29, 2026The Chili Pad 2.0 mattress topper controls bed temperature from 55 to 115 degrees.Said by AThe sources consistently report a 55°F to 115°F operating range for the Chilipad 2.0, including the manufacturer's own product page published before the 2026-09-29 post date, and the claim's 'controls' wording matches the active heating and cooling described. One Business Insider review gives 55–110°F, but its own specifications list 55°F–115°F, so it does not change the verdict.True85% confidence7 sourcesSep 29, 2026Evan Gershkovich spent 500 days in a Russian prison.Multiple sources say Gershkovich spent nearly 500 days in Russian custody, and others give a precise 491 days, so the claim's 500 is within rounding of the record. The extraction matches the passage, which itself says 'the 500 days he spent in a Russian prison'.True92% confidence9 sourcesSep 29, 2026The Supreme Court issued a decision on Friday allowing the use of a federal database for individual checks of voter registration.The Supreme Court ruled on Friday, September 25, 2026, to lift restrictions on the Trump administration's revamped SAVE database, letting states use it to verify voters on their rolls before the midterms. The post's phrase 'individual checks' matches the reporting, which notes that broad purges are barred within 90 days of the election, so the claim is accurate as extracted.True85% confidence4 sourcesSep 29, 2026Amanda Carpenter is a writer and editor at protectdemocracy.org.Multiple sources show Amanda Carpenter was a writer and editor at Protect Democracy (protectdemocracy.org) as of the claim date. The Ash Center interview (2026-08-18) and Protect Democracy's own staff page (2026-01-29) both list her as writer and editor there, and LinkedIn shows the role from July 2023 to present. The post says 'now a writer and editor,' matching the claim; the extraction is faithful.